Musical instrument and record therefor



R. s. BLAIR. MUSICAL INSTRUMENT AND RECORD THEREFOR APPl ICATION FILED JULY 2,1918. Patented Aug. 30, 1921.

' wvemtoz 5.516117" atter/Mu UNITED STATES ROBERT S. BLAIR, SOUTH ORANGE, NEW JERSEY.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENT AND RECORD THEREFOR.

To all wizomit-may concern:

Be it known that I, ROBERT S. BLAIR, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at South Orange, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Musical Instruments and Records Therefor, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to records for musical instruments and the like and more particularly to record rolls or strips used in connection with mechanical automatic pianos, hereinafter referred to as pianolas, although it' is, of course, to be understood that without material modification, the invention hereinafter disclosed is applicable to other types of instruments, such as organs. In its more intense aspect, the invention dealswith the combining on a record roll for a pianola the words to the song to be played, together with means soarranged that the operator may easilyread. the words in their column form on the strip one after the other in a natural downward direction as the record strip is normally actuated. Various attempts may have been made to combine the words of a song and the note actuating means of the accompaniment on a single strip whereby a song may be sung to the accompaniment of the instrument, but in most cases, this has resulted in the objection of having to read the words in an unnatural relative upward direction as the strip was fed downwardly from the feed roller to the winding roller.- It is, therefore, one of the objects of the present invention to overcome the above objection. among others, by the provision of a simple and ractical mechanism and record strip so interrelated and coacting one with the other as to permit the words of the song to'be easily read in a natural downward direction as they successively appear in column form upon 1 the record strip A further object is toiprovide means whereby the words will be in view of the operator for a relatively longer time than heretofore.

Other objects will be in part obvious from the annexed drawings and in part indicated in connection therewith by the following analysis of this invention.

This invention accordingly consists in the features of construction, combination of parts and in the unique relations of the members and in the relative proportiomng and .3 from the roller 1 Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Aug. 30, 1921. Application filed July 2, 1918. Serial No. 243,006. 7

disposition thereof; all as more completely outlined herein. l

Drawings depicting a preferred form have been annexed as a part of this disclosure. wherein is shown semi-diagrammatically a perspective view of such parts of a pianola and record roll as are necessarv to fully understand the inventlon.

In this drawing. 1 denotes a feed roller, while 2 is a receiving or winding roller. These rollers are operated in the usual well known manner to those familiar with pianolas for progressively moving downwardly past a tracker bar 4 to the winding roller :2. The record strip 3 is, of course, provided with the usual note actuating means or perforations 5 which as they come opposite the tracker bar 4 permit the sounding of the corresponding notes in the piano.

Preferably. at one side. of the record strip are printed the words to the song, as indicated. The letters forming the words are placed in reverse or inverted order and the words of a phrase or the syllables of a word, as the case may be, are also placed in inverted order, that is, the last word or syllable appears above the first, as clearly shown in the drawings. A suitable inverting means, such as a mirror 6 is placed "in any convenient location with respect to the tracker bar, preferably slightly therebelow and pivoted at one side 7, thereby to receive the image of the words. as indicated at 8 and reflect them to the eye in normal position and order. A pointer 9 is adapted to indicate the word to be sung. while the corresponding note is played. These words may or may not be opposite the corresponding note actuating .means 011 the recordaccording to the relative location of the mirror with respect to the tracker bar. It is, however, probably desirable that the words should appear opposite the corresponding notes and .the mirror located slightly therebelow and at one side so as not to interfere with the insertion of a new record. The mirror 6 is preferably slightly concave, thereby to reflect several words at any instant, thus giving the singer time to prepare for any particular note. In other words, the words of the song remain in view a relatively longer time.

It is believed that the construction and method of use of a record strip and attacha record strip I ment of the above general character will ap pear clear to those skilled ,in the art and a detailed description thereof is unnecessary.

The invention is of simple and practical construction,- is inexpensive to manufacture and install, and is believed to accomplish,

amongothers, all of the objects and advair.

ta es set forth. I r

Vithout further analysis, the foregoing will so fully reveal the gist of this invention that others can by applying current knowledge readily adapt-it for various applications without omitting certain. features that, from the standpoint of the prior art,

fairly constitute essential characteristics of I the generic or specific aspects of this invention, and therefore suchadaptations should and are intended to be comprehended within, the meaning and range of equivalency of the following claims.

I claim 1. A record strip for musical instruments combiningv note sounding means" and the words of the song corresponding to -the notes to be sounded, said words being arranged along the strip with the words each inverted.

2. A record st-ripfor musical instruments,

having note-sounding perforations and the words of the corresponding, song disposed along the strip in the same direction, the

7 letters of each word being inverted whereby their reflected image will appear normal.

, 3. In apparatus of the class described, -in

combination, feeding rollers for a musical notes played by the strip, the letters of said words being printed in inverted arrangement whereby their reflected image will apmusical instrument, a

' ing to the notes 'ters of said words being printed in inverted pear normal, and a mirror so located with respect. to said record strip as to convey the I reflected image to the eye of the operator.

' 5. In combination with a feed roller and a winding roller of a musical instrument, a record strip adapted to be fed from one to the other having words corresponding to the notes played by the strip, the letters ofsaid words being printed 'in inverted arrangement, and a concave mirror so located with respect to said record strip as to convey the reflected image in normal arrangement to the eye of the operator of a relatively large number, of words at one time.

6. In apparatus of the class described, in combination, record feeding means for a record strip adapted to be fed thereby and provided with notesounding means and with corresponding words serially arranged along the same, and

means adapted to contract longitudinally the apparent disposition of said words.

7. In combination with feeding rollers of .a musical instrument, a record strip adapted to be fed thereby having words corresponding tothe notes played by the strip, the letters of said words being printed ininverted arrangement and a reflecting means so located with respect to said record strip as to fleeting means being so mounted that it may be moved to facilitate. the substitution of another record strip.

8. In comb' ation with feeding rollers of a musical inst ument, a recordstrip adapted to be fedthereby having words correspondplayed by the strip, the letarrangement, and a concave mirror positloned to reflect sald words 1n normal arrangement and having its axis transverse to said strip whereby the reflection of said words is contracted longitudinally of the strip.

In testimony ture. 1

ROBERT s. BLAIR.

whereof I affix m y sigmaconvey the reflected image to the eye of the operator in normal. arrangement, said re- 

